Supply chain systems have become a vital component of successful networked business firms/organisations. Over the last three decades, there has been a dramatic growth globally in the formation of supply chain networks. Research, however, indicates that there has been an increase in reported supply chains failures, and the incompatibility issues between participated organisations. Yet, these incompatibility issues are not just technical, but encompass wider cultural, organisational, and economical factors. Whilst research has shown the effect of such factors on supply chain performance, the influence of achieving corporate culture compatibility to the success of supply chains remains poorly understood. This is because it is widely accepted that organisations that operate in the same region possess a similar culture. In contrast, this research will examine the existence of corporate culture diversity between organisations in the same region, rather than diversity of national culture across different regions. Specifically, the study described the development of corporate culture compatibility between supply chains’ organisations and its influences on supply chain performance. Therefore, the thesis focus is the complex interrelationships between corporate culture compatibility of member organisations and supply chain performance. This research identifies cultural norms and beliefs of supply chain members within key organisational factors, rather than national or multi-national organisations factors, as in Hofstede (1983). A multi-method research design (combining case study, simulation, and neuro-fuzzy methods) was used to provide a rounded perspective on the phenomena studied. The multiple case studies helped to explore how corporate culture compatibility influences supply chain performance and develop a conceptual model for this association. The simulation experiments were conducted to verify the obtained conceptual framework from the multiple case studies, and investigate the effects of changing the corporate culture compatibility level on supply chain performance. The simulation is designed based on a Multi-Agent System (MAS) approach, in which each organisation in a supply chain is represented as an intelligent agent. Finally, a neuro-fuzzy approach is presented to assess corporate culture on supply chains context using real data. The analysis of the quantitative neuro-fuzzy study confirmed and validated the theoretical findings and adds depth to our understanding of the influences of corporate culture compatibility on supply chain performance. The study confirmed that organisations within the same supply chain in the same region possess different corporate cultures that consequently need the achievement of corporate culture compatibility as it is indicated by the literature. Moreover, the study revealed two types of corporate culture in supply chains’ context: individual culture and common culture. Individual culture refers to the internal beliefs within the organisation’s boundary, while common culture refers to beliefs when trading with partners across the organisation’s boundary. However, the study shows that common culture has more influences on supply chain performance than individual culture. In addition, the study highlighted bi-directional association between individual culture and common culture that helps the supply chain’s organisations developing their corporate culture compatibility. The results from the current study also showed that supply chain performance was shown to arise dramatically in response to corporate culture compatibility level increases. Yet, this increase in performance is diminished at a higher level of corporate culture compatibility, because more corporate culture compatibility increases are not cost effective for the organisations. In addition, organisations at a higher level of compatibility have more preferences to preserve their individual culture because it represents their identity. Furthermore, the study complements the gap in the literature related to the assessment of corporate culture of individual organisations in supply chains for sustaining a higher supply chain performance. While current culture assessment models observe individual organisations’ culture, the proposed approach describes a single concentrated model that integrates both individual and common culture in measuring influences of culture compatibility on supply chain performance. The findings from this study provide scholars, consultants, managers, and supply chain systems vendors with valuable information. This research thesis contributes to supply chain configuration and partnership formation theory, along with corporate culture theory, and is the first of its kind to establish the use of intelligent methods to model corporate culture compatibility. It is also one of the first empirical studies to compare corporate culture compatibility of supply chains’ organisations from organisational perspectives, rather than national perspectives.

Under många år har det pratats om ämnesintegrering i den svenska skolan. Detta skulle enligt forskare, Skolverket och Skolinspektionen vara ett sätt att öka engagemanget för matematik och förhoppningsvis öka kunskapsnivån i matematik hos Sveriges skolungdomar. Vår studie undersöker om elever på gymnasiets Restaurang- och livsmedelsprogram angriper matematikproblem olika beroende på graden av ämnesintegrering av programmets karaktärsämnen. Hela matematikkursen har präglats av denna typ av uppgifter för att sätta matematiken i en kontext som eleverna möter i sina karaktärsämnen och kommande yrkesliv.   Genom att både observera elever, då de löst större karaktärsämnesnära matematikuppgifter, och genomföra före-efter-diagnoser studerar vi hur eleverna formar sina lösningar men även hur deras kunskapsnivå i matematik påverkats av att kursen integrerats med karaktärsämnen.   Observationerna har analyserats med hjälp av boundary objects och boundary crossings mellan matematik och karaktärsämne. Dessa har tagits fram med hjälp av Engeströms (2005; 2015) aktivitetsteori samt Star och Griesemers (1989) utveckling av boundary crossing-teori.   Vi har i våra observationer sett att om uppgifter ligger nära elevernas kunskaper i karaktärsämnen har de lättare att hitta alternativa lösningsmetoder för matematikproblemen. Uppgifter kan vara färgade av karaktärsämnet men det är elevernas trygghet i sina karaktärsämneskunskaper som spelar störst roll huruvida de löser uppgiften med en traditionellt matematisk metod eller om de prövar alternativa metoder.   Elevernas kunskapsnivå i matematik förändras till största delen positivt, men inte så markant att det går att dra slutsatsen att ämnesintegrerad undervisning kan revolutionera svensk matematikundervisning.   Denna studie kan vara av intresse för fortsatt forskning kring ämnesintegrering samt för matematikkollegor som undervisar yrkeselever.

The use of agile methods continues to increase within software development but the agile processes do not contain the necessary steps to account for the user and realize the usability of the system. It seems it is therefore necessary to integrate the UCD methodology and agile methodology. What this integration should look like is not always apparent as the integration needs to be adapted to the specific context in each organization. Accompanied by a pre-study which identified difficulties with the integration, the current study examines how UCD specialists experience the communication through boundary objects in distributed agile teams. Furthermore the study examines how the understanding of the user is communicated to the developers in the agile teams and the potential of doing so with a design rationale. A case study was therefore performed with interviews of six UCD specialists to try to answers these questions. A content analysis was performed in relation to each research question and identified a number of themes relating to the experiences concerning; (1) communication through boundary objects, (2) how an understanding of the user is communicated, and (3) opinions of using design rationale for this purpose. Some of the conclusions drawn are that boundary objects only aim at communicating the interaction with the system, that they should be viewed as communication aids as they are not stand-alone and making them comprehensive would be even more time consuming. Furthermore, personas are not deemed fitting for communicating the understanding of the user to developers. This should instead be done by allowing developers to participate in user research.

近年來，許多企業希望透過不同領域的專家彼此合作，為組織解決日益複雜的難題。然而，跨專業團隊的合作過程充滿挑戰，過去文獻多專注於如何提升知識分享的效果，卻忽略了許多關鍵新知識必須由跨界團隊合作探索而來。在面對陌生情境下，這樣的探索尤其重要，例如：開發新產品、啟用新製程，但我們至今仍對跨專業社群如何合作探索的過程所知甚少。 為了探究這個議題，本研究採用民族誌的方式，追蹤半導體晶圓廠工程師如何在複雜的生產系統中解決跨專業的維修難題。過程中，工作者常常必須面臨因果錯綜複雜、責任歸屬不清、跨界溝通不良所導致的合作困境。研究發現要解決這樣的困境，工作者必須運用疆界物件引發三種工作實務：解讀現象背後的因果、改變合作關係、整合跨界知識，才能找出問題核心並對症下藥。 根據本研究發現，如果我們能了解工作者在特定情境中的學習過程，便可提升既有的知識管理與疆界物件理論。在實務議題上，本研究的發現也能幫助現有員工培訓與跨專業溝通方式。 / Recently, more and more companies are gathering different types of specialist in order to solve increasingly complex problems. But the efforts paid in the process of cooperation are challenging for enterprises. Previous researchers had focused on the transfer and share of cross-disciplinary knowledge. However, they neglected the fact that some critical knowledge must be learned by collaborative exploring in terms of particular situation. To understand this issue, an ethnography study was used to examine the process of trouble shooting undertaken by engineers who encountered complex problems in the fabrication of semiconductor wafers. This thesis addressed three primary challenges faced by engineers. First, the nature of the problem may not be defined appropriately at the beginning. Second, responsibility may not be clearly attributed by cross specialist team who is in charge of investigation. Third, without comprehensive contexts of the practice, communication between engineers is problematic itself. To overcome the problem, engineers must be able to go beyond standard operating procedures so that they can find a new path of solution. This thesis argues that the use of boundary objects is an effective trigger of problem solving. The use of a boundary object is then described as a means of decoding the contexts behind the objects, reforming the relationship of cooperation, and integrating knowledge systemically. These findings suggest that theories of knowledge management and boundary objects could be improved organically by considering what people do and how people learn in practice. Furthermore, these findings bring us practical implications of employee training and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

The essay To negotiate truth is a cultural analytical study of the boundary work that takes place in the comment sections, more specifically in relations to the climate change debate and Greta Thunberg’s climate activism. This paper deals with empirical material in the form of comments obtained from the Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet’s and Expressen’s comment field on Facebook. The data-gathering method used for this paper is digital ethnography. This study aims to create an understanding of how argumentation is presented in open social arenas such as Expressen and Aftonbladet's comments field. The purpose of the study has been to show how the contested claims and facts are legitimized and negotiated in the comment fields. The theoretical framework has consisted of discourse theory and Boundary objects theory. The questions to be answered in the study is: In what way is truth constructed in the debate? How are the various claims of truth legitimized? In what way are facts and science used in the legitimization of the different claims of truths? The analysis shows that truth is constructed in many different ways, partly through what i choose to call denial and distrust discourse. The analysis also showed how climate research and the climate can be seen as a boundary object and be used to stabilize the denial discourse further. The result also showed that scientific evidence can be used in a variety of ways in the legitimization of the different claims of truth. On the one hand, there is a demand for more nuanced research to be presented in the media, this creates an image that there are two sides of climate science that are of equal importance. The analysis also showed how mistrust and doubt against established media, political processes and science in general can be used in the legitimization of various statements of truth. I also claim that Greta can be seen as a boundary object in the ongoing negotiation. The use of religious metaphors also proves to be of great importance in trying to undermine the climate issue and climate research in general.

Since the 1990s, urban cultural policy in the UK has been bound to the cause of urban regeneration. Much has been written in examination and critique of this relationship, but what happens when the direction of strategic attention is reversed and civic leadership seeks to regenerate culture itself? The city of Glasgow, having made capital of culture over many decades, has moved towards a strategy for the development of literary Glasgow. This thesis documents a search for those factors crucial to that strategy. The research focuses on literary Glasgow as one aspect of the city’s cultural sector; identifies and examines gaps in the relationship between the civic cultural organisation and literary communities; and highlights those elements vital to the formation of a strategy for development of the literary in Glasgow. An extended period of participatory ethnographic research within the Aye Write! book festival and Sunny Govan Community Radio, is supplemented with data from interviews conducted across the literary sector and analysis of organisational documentation. Through these a gap has been identified between the policies and operations of a civic cultural organisation, and the desires of those engaged within the literary community. This gap is caused, in part, by the lack of a mechanism with which to reconcile contrasting narratives about the cultural essence of the city, or to negotiate the variations in definitions of value in relation to cultural engagement. The interdisciplinary approach builds upon insights from existing work within publishing studies, cultural policy, complexity theory and organisational studies to construct an understanding of the dynamics of Glasgow’s literary sector. This reveals the need for a framework in support of a landscape of practice, a desire for the placement of boundary objects to facilitate engagement, and the significance of value in relation to participation in literary activity. This work informs a strategy for literary Glasgow and contributes to conversations on strategies for cultural development in other cities.

當創新總是發生在不同專業領域的交界之處，團隊成員之間有效的知識互動便成為組織維持其競爭優勢的必要因素，因此為了持續創新，團隊成員必須克服不同專業領域所存在的知識邊界障礙，以便能夠整合團隊成員的知識與專長。在資訊系統的開發過程中，系統分析階段是觀察系統分析人員與使用者知識互動的最佳情境，因此本研究首先探索系統分析情境下影響互動雙方知識分享意願的前因，即創新氣氛與互動雙方的互動投入程度，並檢測這些因素之間的關係及影響。其次，本研究彙整四類邊界物件的內容，即語法的、語意的、實務的與隱喻的邊界物件，探討不同類別的邊界物件之間的關係及對專案創意的影響，並更進一步探究互動雙方的知識分享意願對各類邊界物件的影響。 研究樣本來自258位學生所扮演的系統分析人員及258位業界使用者，研究結果發現創新氣氛會同時影響系統分析人員與使用者的知識分享意願。當系統分析人員的互動投入程度越高，使用者的互動投入程度也會提高。使用者的互動投入程度會正向影響系統分析人員及使用者自身的知識分享意願；但是系統分析人員的互動投入程度卻對使用者的知識分享意願產生直接且負向的影響。 此外，系統分析人員的知識分享意願只對隱喻的邊界物件有正向影響，而使用者的知識分享意願卻對這四類邊界物件皆無顯著影響。在這四類邊界物件之中，只有實務的邊界物件對專案創意具有正向的影響，而隱喻的邊界物件則對於語法的、語意的、實務的邊界物件三者具有正向的影響，因此隱喻的邊界物件可以藉由實務的邊界物件對專案創意產生正向的間接效果。出乎意料之外，語意的邊界物件對專案創意具有負向的影響。在實務方面，本研究建議組織應該藉由增加實務的邊界物件和隱喻的邊界物件，以提高專案創意嶄露的可能性。 / As innovation happens from the boundaries between different specialty domains, effective knowledge interaction among participants has become a competitive necessity for organizations. In order to improve innovation, it is necessary for participants to deal explicitly with the interpretive barriers and further synthesize their expertise. During the development of information system, most knowledge interactions, which are conducted by systems analysts and users, can be observed in the phase of systems analysis. Thus, this study intends to explore not only factors that may affect participants’ intention to share knowledge, but also types of boundary objects in the context of systems analysis. As an innovative organizational climate and participants’ interaction involvement are identified as antecedents of participants’ intention to share knowledge, the relationships among these factors are studied. Besides, while four types of boundary objects are summarized, their effects on project innovativeness are discussed. Then, the influence of participants’ intention to share knowledge on the occurrence of four types of boundary objects was further examined. The results, based on data collected from 258 student analysts and 258 users, indicate that an innovative climate positively and directly influences both systems analysts and users’ intention to share knowledge. While systems analysts’ interaction involvement has a strong influence on users’ interaction involvement, which is measured by responsiveness, perceptiveness and attentiveness, users’ interaction involvement also has positive effects on both systems analysts and users’ intention to share knowledge; unexpectedly, systems analysts’ interaction involvement is negatively related to users’ intention to share knowledge. In addition, while systems analysts’ intention to share knowledge only influences the occurrence of metaphoric boundary objects, users’ intention to share knowledge does not demonstrate any significant effect on four types of boundary objects. Out of syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and metaphoric boundary objects, only pragmatic boundary objects had a strong positive effect on project innovativeness. As metaphoric boundary objects are shown to have positive effects on all other three types of boundary objects, metaphoric boundary object affects project innovativeness indirectly through pragmatic boundary objects. Surprisingly, semantic boundary objects negatively affects project innovativeness, although not very strongly. A practical implication is the possibility of increasing project innovativeness by enhancing both pragmatic boundary objects and metaphoric boundary objects.

This thesis paper addresses a problem of motivation that interaction designers experience when managing multiple design processes while keeping track of many design considerations. Once this issue is described at length, the paper focuses towards a possible solution in the form of a hybrid between creativity and productivity support tools: an accomplishment support tool. This tool is meant to support interaction designers in their experience with managing multiple processes.This paper does not suggest that interaction design is the only profession that suffers from the motivation issue that is described, nor does it deny that other professions could benefit from the use of such a tool. The paper merely attempts to narrow the issue down to one profession so that it may be addressed within the limits of the thesis project.The paper explores the need for such a tool by inspecting and analyzing current methods and digital applications used by interaction designers and mentions how this need is addressed with solutions based on relevant theories from diverse areas of interest. As defining qualities emerge from a combination of theoretical and practical research, case studies are described from a preparation perspective and then as experienced by workshop participants and interviewees.The case studies (which include workshops and prototype modules) are then reflected upon and discussed in terms of their impact on the overall goals of the thesis project. A final prototype in the form of a web application, IxD Companion, is then described through scenarios of use and assessed in the conclusion. Suggestion to future work on accomplishment support tools such as IxD Companion, as well as others, is provided at the end.